Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff Confirm Final Season of Battlestar Galactica!!!

When asked about the next season of Battlestar, Olmos had this to say, “This will probably be the most extraordinary season of Battlestar, it’s the final season so, it’s definitely going to be the most vicious.”

REMIX will feature a completely remixed and remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround sound and remastered video under the direction/supervision of Shinichiro Watanabe. REMIX will include new extras such as interviews with the US voice actors and actresses, collections of trailers, promos, the Session 0 extras (Japanese Interviews with the staff and cast, story digest of the second half of the series, Tank music videos) and more.

Rumor has it that George Lucas has changed his mind once again regarding the proposed title for the third installment (or sixth depending on how you look at it) of Star Wars. The previous idea would have been "Rise of the Empire", which sounds appropriate.

While anime in its modern form has only been around for approximately the last 40 years, animation in Japan extends back over twice as long, as this work proves. In the early days of anime, independent animators worked vigorously to produce what eventually would pave the way to Astro Boy in 1963.

As usual, there was a frustratingly large number of different fascinating things going on at the same time for most of the hours of the day at the 2003 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC). Especially if, like me, you were interested in both anime and "mainstream" American comics Eand media-oriented programming, as well as the more academic Comics Arts Conference (CAC) track that ran alongside the parent convention for most of the first three days.Full story here.

ADV Films today announced a November 4, 2003 release date for Sin: Special Edition, the movie tie-in to the video game of the same name from Ritual Entertainment. Sin: The Movie, produced by ADV Films and animated by Japan's Phoenix Animation, was originally released in 2000. This Special Edition release includes Sin on DVD, plus the original soundtrack on CD, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.The DVD includes both English-language and Japanese-language audio, and offers viewers two distinct storylines in the subtitled versions. One is Sin: The Movie's original English-script, while the other is the Japanese-language translation of the English script-creating intriguing variations in the storyline. Full story here.

Manga publisher Mag Garden, publisher of the Monthly Comic Blade manga anthology will be listed on Tokyo Stocks Exchange's "Mothers" Market for start-up companies. Mag Garden was spun-off of the publication arm of Enix before the company merged with Square. Mag Garden's manga include Matantei Loki Ragnarok, Peacemaker Kurogane and R^2.Full story here.

According to several retail sources, Bandai is planning to switch to a new DVD distributor. The new business arragement, which would end their relationship with current distributor Pioneer, is reportedly scheduled to begin on January 1, 2004. Bandai declined to comment on the alleged change.Full news here.

According to the latest Famitsu magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment will be releasing PoPoLoCrois: Tsuki no Okite no Bouken, which will be the fifth installment in the series.PoPoLoCrois: Tsuki no Okite no Bouken is 70 percent complete and is scheduled for release in the winter. In related news, PoPoLoCrois will be released as a TV anime in Japan, on the TV Tokyo network, beginning in October. The anime will also be based on Pinon and his friends. Full story here.

It has tens of millions of fans around the world, more than 30,000 Web sites, and its artists are household names in Japan.Yet most Americans have never heard of anime (AN-uh-may), the elastic definition used to describe all Japanese animated movies.Full story here.

Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Garfield, Astro Boy and Totoro. These are famous American and Japanese animated characters. Considering the rapid increase in the export of Korean-made animated features, this list of globally beloved animated heroes may soon include Korean ones. Full story here.

On a crowded train in Tokyo recently, I counted 16 adults in one compartment alone reading mangas--Japanese comic books. Standing or sitting, all were engrossed in their picture-novels. So intense was their concentration that a few kept on reading as they exited the train. One man actually missed his station.Full story here.

Starting on September 3, Yahoo! Japan will be launching a new manga distribution service called "Yahoo! Comic" (Japanese only). Readers will be able to search through 1200 manga volumes, comprised of 288 manga titles by 26 different authors. These include some news releases, as well as old favorites like Tetsuwan Atom, Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider, Versailles no Bara, and others.Full story here.